Catalog rebuild... WHERE are the catalog files?

[Eric Seaberg]

I do all of my backups to a 2TB drive as a 'FILE'. Because of some other drive issues, I decided to rebuild the catalogs of my backup files, yet am not asked WHERE to put the new Catalog file, and they don't show up in Library:Application Support:Retrospect:Catalogs. Doing a search on the Mac after the catalog is rebuilt shows they are nowhere to be found, yet Retrospect does rebuild them.

 

Any ideas? I've watched the 'catalog rebuild' video and, like I said, am NOT given the option to select a location for the new catalog.

 

 

Thanks for the help.

 

 

Another question... is there a way to convert a FILE backup to a DISK? I could certainly convert all of my existing FILE to DISK and save the new catalogs where they're supposed to be.

Edited February 20, 2010 by Guest

[CallMeDave]

First a bit of history (as best as I can remember it).

 

What was originally named "Combined File Archive" was later changed to "File Backup Set" is now known as a "File Media Set."

 

In the early days, the Catalog portion of the File Backup Set was stored in the resource fork of the Macintosh file. This allowed the entire backup to be contained in a single file, which has its advantages and disadvantages over having the catalog and data in different, independent files.

 

The more files listed in the catalog, the more bytes it would take up in the resource fork, which has an upper size limit. This was fine on OS 6/7/8/9 machines alone, as they were unlikely to have enough files to reach that ceiling.

 

But OS X is a file rich environment. And when Dantz introduced an OS X Client + Plugin for Retrospect 4.2, backup administrators began to find their File Backup Sets unable to cope with their OS X client pool.

 

Retrospect 5.0 introduced the automatically Separated File Backup Set; when the Backup Set was started it would be the same as before, all one file with Catalog information in the resource fork. But after a certain number of files was added the Catalog would split off from the data, resulting in two files (stored together in the same folder).

 

Updates to Retrospect later abandoned the automatic splitting and just create the File Media Set as two files on disk, although it retained the feature of manually combining them if the user wanted to (and the data could handle it).

 

The Retrospect 8 interface doesn't seem to differentiate a File Media Set from the others; the creation interface is the same as for the others, with the path to the "Catalog" selectable, and no mention that it's actually the path to what will be the full backup itself.

 

On a quick test of a small Favorite Folder I don't see two individual files, just a single modestly sized ".rbf" (Retrospect Backup File?) file. So I don't know if it will split itself when used more, or if the developers found a way to handle it all in a single file without the use of (and inherent limitations of) a resource fork.

 

You are correct that there are no choices for Rebuild or Repair; when you select the Media Set from the list, the program knows where the File Media Set is stored and does its thing (although I was prompted to replace the existing Media Set before it would continue).

 

You don't describe the circumstances that led you to believe Rebuilding the File Media Set was necessary, but it probably wasn't.

 

 

Dave